Happy Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is the perfect holiday to kick-off my favorite season – Summer.

 As I’ve been planning my festivities for the holiday weekend, I started remembering the first time I enjoyed a Margarita.  I had just turned 21 and my Mother and I were visiting her friend in Southern California and a group of us went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant…. I had recently moved to California from New England and had no clue how to read the menu or what to order.  Fortunately, for me, the cute guy next to me, ordered both a drink and dinner for me.  A frozen Margarita and a Chile Rellano….Yum, I was in heaven.  For years, that was my standard order.

 At a friend’s 40^th birthday party, I had a great margarita and found out it was a recipe from his Mother-in-Law who had spent a lot of time “perfecting” it.  The recipe is so easy a kid could make it….oops probably not a good idea…kids shouldn’t be using an electric blender.  Anyway, this recipe is just like a Hop, Skip and Go Naked, except instead of equal proportions of (straight from the can) Lemonade, Vodka and Beer, you use Limeade, Tequila and Triple Sec.  It's even better if you use a good quality tequila like Patron, which I first learned about it from my sister-in-law.  She was at a little Mexican restaurant in Tahoe and on each table they had a few fresh flowers in what she thought was a very pretty “vase”.  She inquired about purchasing one and found out it was an  empty Patron Tequila bottle.  If you are unfamiliar with Patron, check it out, the bottles are blown glass and beautiful…I have quite a few of these little “vases”.

Lately I've been thinking it might be time to try a little lighter blend.  I’ve been experimenting and having a variety of results.  Some had potential but the amount of work involved is just not worth it.  So now, I’m using my tried and true recipe with a twist.  Instead of a frozen drink, I’m using a larger glass, making a regular size drink with crushed ice and then adding sparkling water.  This is not to say, I am giving up my favorite completely, but for just a light refreshing drink, I’m really enjoying this version.

Hope you enjoyed my little travel down memory lane….and maybe you will reflect about your first margarita on this wonderful and festive holiday.

Salud

Please feel free to leave your memories or comments.

The Best Book(s) of 2012

Have you ever read a book that you enjoyed so much that you wanted to tell everyone about it?  I read two of such books in 2012 and have decided that every January, I will post one or two titles for the prior year if I feel I read anything that was truly exceptional.   Originally I thought only one book could qualify and then realized it was only fair to have both a fiction and non-fiction category.

My choices for 2012 are:

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20  by Tina Seelig

That's it.....

Do you have one, two?  Please leave the title and author as a comment. 

If you have to go back over your book list for the year, then the book was not exceptional. It has to be one that would come to mind immediately if someone asked you:  What was the best book you read in 2012?

Happy Reading.

December 2011 Stocking

While beading the January snowflake stocking, I kept thinking about a friend who was expecting her first child in March. I was sure it would be a boy and it was. Baby O entered the world on March 18. I gave the stocking to him for his first Christmas.

Now, another friend is expecting her first in April, 2012. She already knows it is a girl so I decided to finish out the year in the way it began. The Momma-to-be loves pink and bling so I have created this little stocking for Christmas 2012 for Baby V. I'm sure she will like it. The cuff is over-beaded with Swarovski 3 mm crystals in pink AB.

Hope you have enjoyed the stocking project as much as I have creating them.

Happy Holidays

Hot enough?

Tired of the sweltering summer? Ready to cool off? Well, sit back, close your eyes and picture a crisp winter day, beautiful blue skies and fresh snow on the ground. Put on your boots and mittens, leave the shovels in the garage (remember, this is a day dream) and go outside and play. Already, I'm sure you are feeling cooler...now how about going back to your younger self and make some snow angels? What about a snowman in the front yard? Nothing symbolizes fun in the snow more than snow angels and snowmen.

Now, open your eyes and PRESTO.... a snowman !!!!


This little guy was a lot of fun to bead and to date, my favorite stocking....hope you like it too.

Scrabble Question

The other night, I was behind coming into the final 2 rounds of a scrabble game. Again, like the amazing coup of using my QUEUEUE reported recently, there was open space in the upper right hand corner and with 5 tiles left, I was able to tie into an N and made the word ENTS, which also made two other words as well as a double word score for a grand total of 48 points. Hubby was not happy and challenged the word. Even though it wasn't in the dictionary we use, I kept the points for a win and he stills doubts the validity of it. I explained that ENTS are tree people and said if he would read J R R Tolkien or do the New York Times crossword puzzle, he would know that. Question is: Would you Scrabble players out there have let me keep the points?

Sorry no photo, didn't think about it until after I was putting the game away.

Scrabble

Getting near the end of a very frustrating game of Scrabble where I kept getting good point tiles but basically none of the highly coveted STARLINE tiles (A E I L N R T S), I ended up with Q U E. Imagine my surprise (and angst) when I picked my 4 tiles and ended up with this:

Mysterious Messages

Two weeks ago, on a Monday, I found this Smile card in my mailbox. On the back is a heart and the words With Love.

Last Monday, this I Dare You card was there. Same heart and words on the back. When I saw the mailman, I asked him if others were getting them as well. He said most of the houses on my street got them.

In the meantime, I bought Martha Stewart's May issue of Living and wanted to try the Pop-Up Bouquet card. Went to her web-site to see if there was a video as Step One seemed a little confusing. There is no video but did see a card that had little tissue flowers that I liked. While working on the cards this morning, started thinking about the mysterious messages arriving in my mailbox.

I'm not one to let a challenge of this type go unanswered so decided to combine the two cards and will leave it in my mailbox today. I'm thinking the cards are being "delivered" sometime after the Saturday mail is picked up and before it's delivered again on Monday.




I hope the unknown "sender" enjoys the card.

August

A Day at the Beach

The beach glass and shells were collected over the years from beaches in California and New England. The sand is from Hawaii, carefully carried back by a dear friend especially for this ornament.

I love beach glass and all I’ve ever done with it is keep it in a jar. I don’t have the means to drill holes in glass and truly wasn’t interested in learning, just imagining the sound was enough to discourage me, tried beading a bezel, was successful but it was too slow. Next, remembered having fairly good luck working with wire when I made Beaded Goddesses several years ago. Although at the time I thought the wire seemed to have a mind of its own….like a Ouija Board, it seems like the spirits are moving it when in reality the slightest pressure is bringing about those wonderful results.

Playing with Wire and wrapping glass turned out to be lots of fun. These pieces are all done with practice wire. I’ve since bought sterling but have yet to try it. Had to get the ornament done first.

Hope you have enjoyed your time at the beach.

Cookie from Williams-Sonoma

Happy Easter

Eggs, they're not just for chickens anymore.

Spring

To Life, To Love, To Spring..... Gwen Suesse

My March BJP was a lot of fun to make. The ornament is covered with twigs and leaf buds, looks just like a tree at work.
Was thrilled when 3 birds dropped in to help celebrate the first day of Spring.



A close up of the birds...



Bird pattern is from BeeJang bead_tutorial@livejournal Took me a while to figure out the directions, it was well worth the time, they are adorable.

Caty Catz Birthday Party

The Catz family birthday party was a success. If you missed it, you can still catch it at:
http://www.mmcatz.blogspot.com/ March 14 post.

Letters California Style 2010

Barbara Close's "Textured Letters" class was wonderful.
I designed this R on Valentine's Day. The "sprinkles" are silver-lined clear beads.

Valentine KISS

A dear friend gave me the beautiful crystal heart and I wanted to showcase it for my February BJP ornament. After several unsuccessful starts and stops with designing the fringe to feature the heart, a little voice in my head said: Keep It Simple, Shel....hence the name Valentine KISS.

I promise the photos will get better, hopefully with the March project. In the meantime, I'm leaving for a Calligraphy Conference in California and our office is moving March 1. Have my idea for the March BJP but haven't started it yet. So many plans, so little time, something has to give, guess it will be sleep.

A Maine Coon's Mane

Thought it was time to show off my Maine Coon's winter Mane.

Cold Winter Days

Following in the footsteps of my beading sister (albeit 2 years later), decided the time had come to join Robin Atkins' Bead Journal Project. My goal is to make 12 ornaments.

Originally from the Northeast, it seemed appropriate to use snowflakes for January.

I beaded 19 snowflakes using Delica beads and Swarovski crystals. The ornament is beautiful hanging over my dining room table although it did not photograph well so I spread it out on a black velvet board.

Today, December 17, 2009, was beautiful.... A bright sunny day, temps in the mid 60's, great day for running around doing errands in preparation of Christmas. Thought I'd post a photo of my back yard showing the difference between today and December 17, 2008.

Today


and last year

10 Years Later….Another Summer of Love

1969 was a pivotal year for an entire generation and as you know, if you read my last post, the year my sister got married.

1979 also had its share of noteworthy news:

Mister Ed, the talking horse, died

The Susan B Anthony dollar was issued

It snowed in the Sahara Desert for 30 minutes

Michael Jackson released his first break through album “Off the Wall”

“For Better or Worse” comic strip debuted

McDonald’s introduced Happy Meals

And, in my family, it was another Summer of Love as we planned my September 7^th wedding.

Happy 30^th Anniversary, Dear Husband, it’s been a great ride.

Summer of Love

1969 --- What a year….

America elected Richard Nixon to become its 37^th President and Dwight D. Eisenhower, our 35^th President died.

Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon

Boeing 747 made its maiden flight

The Godfather was published

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was the hit movie

Sesame Street premiered on TV

The Beatles released Abbey Road and also gave their last public performance

John Lennon and Yoko Ono conducted their “Bed-In”

And Woodstock became the ultimate music festival

In my family, it truly was the Summer of Love…we were planning my sister’s September 5th wedding. I felt privileged that she asked me, her kid sister, to be her Maid of Honor.

Dear Sis and Brother-in-law, Happy 40^th Anniversary.

Your relationship and marriage have been an inspiration to me.

Live Writer

Just testing to see how using Windows Live Writer will work.

Adding the picture of the Bali Lantern was easy….a lot faster than using blogspot

So far the mechanics of it are easy….Now to see what it looks like when it posts.

Pink Trillium

Saw this trillium design in Diane Fitzgerald's new book Shaped Beadwork and just had to try it. It is my first attempt at a dimensional bead project. I like the results.